Chief Warrant Officer 3 Clint McQuitty is strapped in to ride outside of an OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter after successfully arriving at his pick-up zone during the Troop C, 1st Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape and self-extraction training exercise at Fort Riley, Kan. The purpose of the exercise was to train and provide experience to the troop's pilots on what it is like to evade capture and be extracted from danger on the outside of a helicopter. (Contributed photo/Capt. Drew Cochran)

It's hard to train for the worst-case scenario but a group
of Army aviators did just that recently as they tested a new self-extraction
training scenario designed to save lives in a combat situation.

Aviators from the 1st Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry
Division, took part in survival and evasion exercises at Fort Riley, Kan. in
mid-November. The exercises included placing the soldiers in a simulated
hostile environment where they were required to leave a "downed" OH-58D Kiowa
Warrior helicopter and go to a designated pick-up zone. Once there, they were
rescued by fellow Kiowa pilots and were required to secure themselves on the
outside of the aircraft using straps connected to their flight gear.

"This is a non-standard event," explained Capt.
Tony Snipes, commander of Troop C, 1st Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment.
"There is no Army standard, so we are trying to standardize it and execute
it as professionally as possible."

The self-extraction technique was put to real-world use in
Iraq in 2004 during the rescue of downed OH-58D Kiowa Warrior pilots Chief
Warrant Officer 2 Chad Beck and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Greg Crow. It was used
again in 2007 when a Kiowa piloted by Chief Warrant Officer 2 Mark Burrows and
Chief Warrant Officer Steven Cianfrini was downed in Iraq. In both cases, the
rescued pilots rode on the outside of the AH-64 Apache secured by the nylon
straps attached to their pilots' vests.

"Pilots have to respond immediately and have to be
extracted immediately," said Lt. Col. Paul Cravey, 1st Sqdn., 6th Cav.
Regt. commander. "Most of the shoot-down or forced-landing situations we
(encounter) don't drag out for several days. The action usually goes down
within an hour."

Cravey said few pilots have "hands-on" experience with
extraction scenarios and he saw a need for real-world training.

Snipes said the remainder of his squadron will undergo the
training and eventually, it will be rolled out the rest of the Army.